Yes, you are going to fail. And fail hard. I am going to fail, and fail hard. I am probably failing at grammar right now. It is what you and I do with that failure is what is the difference between successful people and those who never rise above. I have failed numerous times, yet here I am still working and moving forward. I have learned from those failures and make the best out of them.

If your parents never let you failed as a child they truly cheated you out of the best lesson they could given you. If you are reading this, and you are reading and have kids, let them fail and fail hard. Then turn around teach them that it it ok to fail. Teach them to get right back up, learn from their mistakes and try again but even harder. This, besides manners, is the greatest gifts you can give.

Here is the truth, I am a shitty ass artist. At least in my mind. Yet I am going back to making art once again. Hopefully I dig some of my work and maybe someone else will enjoy it, or at the very least, lie to me. Yet I try and learn. One day I hope to make pieces that I will approve of and think it is good. As a filmmaker I have made numerous mistakes, but difference is I have learned from them, and it has made me a better filmmaker. I will fail again and again, and each time take that failure and grow.

It brings me great joy to announce that the Tampa Bay Filmmakers speaking Series has a lock down date, time and speaker, as well as a name for it, “Filmmakers Speak”

It is being presented by The Florida Motion Picture and Television Association, FMPTA Tampa Bay Chapter, and I will be your host. It will be on Saturday, March 24th at 10 am at Keiser University, 5225 Memorial Hwy Tampa Fl 33634 This event is free and open to the public and will be live streamed.

We are honored to have as our first speaker Russell Hess.
Here is what Russell will be covering.
Some very important questions answered:

1. Packaging, what is it, is it important and why?
2. I’ve written one or more scripts, now what should I do?
3. Why can’t I raise money for my project?
4. Why you should NEVER lower your budget in an attempt to obtain production capital!
5. Can I arrange for a pre-distribution deal?
6. Is it possible to get movie stars in my film or documentary?
7. How will I know if my film can even qualify for a distribution deal?
(and when should I know this?)
8. What is the best kind of distribution deal to get and how soon can I get it?
9.Why do my films never get off the ground, completed, sold distributed
or make any money? (the answer is more simple than you think)
10. How can I have a better chance at getting into a film festival?
11. Which festivals are the best for my film?
12. Which distributors are the best for my film?
13. How can I create a “product” that will have distributors coming to ME?
Russell Hess has been in entertainment for over 25 years. From actor to producer and from sales agent to distributor, Hess has been responsible for independent film releases world-wide. The indie doc, “inGREEDients” helmed by Russell Hess saw a global release in over 70 countries and in 3 languages. Hess and his partners have developed a proprietary IPTV player similar to Netflix and Hulu. The platform will be for independent content only (for now). The big companies are already making the shift from DVD/BluRay and Hess’ company, Commodity Films, LLC is already moving in this direction.

Hess has connections with major and medium-sized companies and partners in various parts of the world for the releasing of any kind of title. Commodity Films operates an “all-digital” process from screening to release. The inventor of the IPTV player arranged a deal with Facebook so the titles can be viewed (and monetized) on the largest social network on the planet.

Hey all crowd sourcing time. I am trying to come with a name for the Filmmakers speaker series. This will be a monthly engagement by local professional filmmakers covering a wide range of topics. Please send me suggestions.

Ok well here is a bit of good news. Keiser University is allowing me to use their campus to hold the film speaker seminar. I have some really good people lined up and will be announcing the first date soon. It is my hope to help the Bay area’s film community become stronger and better equipped with knowledge and the tools to be successful.

I plan to hold them once a month. They will be about 2 hours with a 10 minute break. I am still working on details.

Also if you would like to be a sponsor please contact me at timschroyer@gmail. com

I am excited about the upcoming year. I am soon to start my production company, due to the fact that I have projects that are in the works and I need to be incorporated. I didn’t want to create my production company just yet, however I have to.

At the moment I am putting together a film seminar here in Tampa. I will have local film professionals come out and give a seminar on whatever topic they choose regrading film and the industry. I am currently in talks with a University to hold these seminar and hope to have the first Seminar soon.

I have two productions in the works. One is the Polytrauma documentary and the other is a feature about rape and sexual violence. I am currently looking for 2 PMD’s for these projects.

Finally I am writing a film program/competition. The reason behind it is to help filmmakers prepare for the new landscape. Film making has drastically changed and I think this program will help them. I will be looking for sponsorship and experts to contribute. This program will have an emphasis on marketing and distribution as well as crowd funding.

As you all know I am directing a trailer, for a screen play written by Barbra Harrington. This is my first time directing. Yes, this is scary for me in a lot of ways. At first I was overwhelmed. I thought of all the things that I need to do and all the things I do not know and could go wrong . Scary to say the least.

However, I am lucky. I have an amazing production team. I have a my production manager, Al Alvarez, is top notch and is extremely creative and organized. My DP, Mike Watrak, is one of the best DP’s in Tampa. I have worked with Mike many times as his AC and it is always a pleasure to do so.

We had a production meeting at our location, the Flamingo Resort in St Pete, Monday and got an idea of how we want to shoot it and the blocking. (Always go to the location in you can and scout it out to Figure out how you want to shoot it.) See what are your limitations are. It will help you out more than you know.

So now I am doing research for the film and over the weekend I am taking a small, yet desperately needed, working vacation. I am going to break down each scene, there are 5, and get a feel of how I want it acted out by each character.

Today, for a short trailer we had auditions. In addition to that we got an opportunity to block and rehears a scene that we will be shooting and I am glad we did. The scene we rehearsed was somewhat of a complicated scene for me to set up, so to get together with my Co-Director and Production Manager, who is extremely talented, it was a blessing and a great learning experience. Needless to say we have a very good working idea of how we are going to shoot the scene.

So back to the audition, we made mistakes. First, the audition was set up for 7 hours. This is fine if you are seeing 40 or 50 people that day however we did not. As a matter of fact while I was there we went through 4. Secondly. we did not do was have preselected lines before picked for the actors to read. Instead we were there debating what pages they would read from. We looked rather discombobulated. And we were. It was beginner mistakes. So we learned that we need to be better to be prepared.

I also got the best bit of advice from my Production Manager, which I hadn’t realized, which is when you get the actor in front of you give them direction. You need to set up the scene for them. What is there motivation? What are you looking for out of them? Yes it sounds like a no brainier, but if you never have done it before you might not think of it.